The present invention relates to electrical connectors, and more particularly to a shielded connector having enhanced structural integrity.
USB (Universal Serial Bus) mated plug-type connectors are widely used in computers for integrating the input/output transmission of a computer peripheral, such as a keyboard, a mouse and/or a modem. Integrating several different peripheral dedicated connectors into one USB connector reduces the number of slots and wires at the back of the computer. Conventionally, USB connectors have a metallic shield to provide electromagnetic shielding and also to mount the connector on a circuit board. However, conventional USB connectors have suffered from loosening problems over a period of use, being subjected to repeated inserting, extracting and shaking of the mated plug. In particular, a seam of the metallic shield has been known to crack or separate, permitting the shield to undesirably spread apart. It is desirable to enhance the structural stability of USB connectors to ensure the signal transmission quality.
The present invention provides a shielded electrical connector having a support member for improving the rigidity of the shield and improving overall connector integrity. In an embodiment, the connector includes a housing with a terminal support with a plurality of terminal cavities. A plurality of conductive terminals reside in the terminal cavities. Each of the terminals has a contact portion for mating with a respective terminal of a mating connector and a tail portion for engaging a respective conductor on a circuit board on which the connector is to be mounted. The connector further includes a conductive shield around the terminal support. The shield has walls around the terminal support, the walls including opposed side walls, a top wall and a bottom wall, and a plurality of flanges flaring outwardly from the walls around a front opening for receiving the mated plug. The flanges firmly seat against a computer panel or chassis and enhance the mounting rigidity of the connector. Moreover, at least one of the flanges has an aperture for affixing said connector to a panel, such as with a screw. The insulative housing has at least one support beam extending along an outside surface, the support beam of the housing having a front surface disposed behind a rear surface of the apertured flange at the front of the shield.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the support beam extends from the bottom side of the insulating housing. Additionally, in an embodiment, the support beam is placed below the seam between the two bottom panels of the shield, providing support along the seam to reduce flexing of the shield at that location. Therefore, the bottom panels of the metallic shield will not bend and spread apart despite repeated inserting, extracting and shaking of the plug.
According to an embodiment, the connector has two support beams that extend from opposite lateral sides of the insulating housing. The support beams receive the shield, each of the slots clamping one of the side walls of the shield. This prevents the two lateral sides of the shield from bending.
According to an aspect of the present invention, the shield has at least one retaining flange with a threaded hole extended from at least one lateral side of the metallic shield. The flange enables the connector to be mounted to a computer chassis or panel with additional securing force by tightening a screw into the threaded hole. Moreover, the retaining flange provides a grounding point and can thereby eliminate a static charge on the metallic shield. Each of the aforementioned support beams includes a frontwardly-facing support surface disposed behind a rear side of one or more of the flanges surrounding the front opening of the shield.
Additional features and advantages of the present invention are described in, and will be apparent from, the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the appended drawings.